So that afternoon, we got back to the house and hung out with Dr.A And Bubbles. This was to be the only time we got to spend with them that weekend. It was great, though. We just hung out and drank beers.
So the wedding. It was very nice. Mz Snowbliz looked so cute, so perfect. The best part was that she was wearing her sister's wedding dress. I thought that was very fitting. The wedding was at St. Anne's on Esplanade. Then the reception was at the Omni in the quarter. So we walked there. I was wearing my standard going to a wedding outfit. So I had on these pretty high heels that I have worn about 8 times at the most, but they were about 6 years old. So my right shoe started to feel weird, and I walked slower and slower. Next thing I know, the whole front half of the sole detaches. So, this couple happened to be walking to the reception too, and the guy says, duct tape, use duct tape! So we turned around and headed to the nearest tourist shop. We figured we would either find flip flops or tape. They had a whole wall of flip flops. At first Nutella pulls out these green ones with fleur de lis on the strap. They were pretty funny, but not appropriate for wedding attire. So we found these flip flop wedges. I found the right pair, we paid for them, I put them on and we headed to the reception.
So the reception was on the second floor. As soon as we walked in, we were right at the bar. I don't know if Mz Snowbliz planned it that way, but I wouldn't have been surprised. So being a vodka drinker, Mz Snowbliz offered her drink of choice - Ketel One vodka. So I got a Ketel One and soda of course. Then the food was right there. This was a small room, and there were only a few tables in it. But then there was a side room with more tables and the band and dancefloor. And then there was the huge patio area with another bar. It was very nice.
So here's a rundown of the menu: Natchitoches meat pies, crawfish pies, crabcakes, artichoke balls, crab barquette, brie with praline topping, mini muffs, roast beef, roast ham, roast leg of lamb, pasta with tomato cream sauce, mashed potato bar, and brocatos sesame biscotti. That's all that I can think of. I have to admit, that I was very selfish at this wedding, and I was really only thinking of my needs - alcohol. I drank very steadily, and so, I didn't eat everything there. In fact, I ate very little. I just only went for one go at the buffet. I realize that I have failed my readers as a food ho, after all this is not the vodka ho's blog! I heartily apologize for this, dear readers.
But I guess I will tell you what I ate. I had the meat pies, the crawfish pies, the crabcakes, the artichoke balls, crab barquette and the brie. Not very much of an assortment. I just pretty much went through the first table, then my plate was full. That's why I got a very poor assortment. I should have gone for at least one more plate. Anyway, I ate a bunch of fried stuff and cheese. The barquette was a passed hors d'oevre. So that was okay. It was nothing special, but not bad. Then there were the pies - the meat pie and the crawfish pie. They were both soggy bottomed, which was disappointing. It's kind of hard to keep that kind of thing in a steam table, though. The flavor of both was okay, not as exhilarating as I remember that kind of stuff. The crabcakes, I can't remember, but I don't think I really liked it. I think I had already had too much other fried food. Then the artichoke balls. I honestly think I was blabbing or drinking, and I don't quite remember these, but the Food Pimp said those were the highlight. So I guess the artichoke balls were the winners.
I assure you, next time I go to a wedding with this kind of set up, I will get a little from each table the first round, so that I will be forced to go back for something that I wanted to try. This was a new learning experience for me, since this is my first wedding review. I will get better, I promise.
So someone got a packet of the biscotti, and brought it to our little secluded corner of the patio. So I broke them open and tried one. Really strong sesame flavor. It might have been good, but I think that was definitely a made-for-dipping kind of biscotti.
So then they did the wedding cake stuff. Both cakes looked great.
I can't remember who made them, of course. So the wedding cake was wedding cake flavored. Mz Snowbliz is a traditionalist. It was very refreshing, actually to eat a traditional flavored wedding cake. It was very moist and almondy and vanillaey. The groom's cake had a pirate on it, because her husband had some ancestor who was a pirate! So that cake was chocolate, of course. It was pretty damn good too. Also moist. Nutella ate his cakes in about 30 seconds flat. He is a fast eater... actually, he's a fast drinker too.
So after the reception, Mz Snowbliz told us to head to Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. So we headed to The Court of Two Sisters first, to get a free drink and shoot the shit with Mozzfan69. After a bit, we said bye and headed to Lafitte's. There were a few people there. We doubted that Mz Snowbliz would make it out, but we hung around for a while, then we decided to go somewhere else. I was kinda tired, but they wanted to go to the House of Blues foundation room for one drink. On the way there, though, everyone else got tired. So we went back to the Omni to go our separate ways. As we were walking around we saw Mz Snowbliz and company in the lobby. So Nutella starts freaking out and says, there she is, she's in the Omni, she's there! It's hard to calm him down when he gets like that. So we walked in, said our byes to everyone, then the FP and I were on the streets again. We were deciding between going home and getting something to eat. Since none of us ate too much at the wedding, we decided to eat. The only place we could think of was Deja Vu. We weren't sure what street it was on, but somehow we stumbled upon it, no problem.
So we walked in, and the door seemed to be on another side than we remembered. It was very brightly lit, and it seemed to have been renovated a bit in the past few years. All that made it look worse than I remembered. It was always a dump, but dumps that owners try to halfass make into something other than a dump always turn out worse. It still had the shady characters in there, anyway, and they still had the gumbo and red beans and rice and the jambalaya. That was all we needed anyway. So we ordered one of each. We remembered we used to love that place when we first moved to New Orleans, all those years ago. We hoped the food was still as good.
And it wasn't. The red beans and rice were kinda watered down. Like maybe they didn't have too much left, or it stuck to the pot, so they tried to reconstitute it and put too much water in it. The gumbo and the jambalaya were atrocious after our lunch. It would be like comparing a McDonald's hamburger to kobe beef tartare. (Which means there would be no contest as the two things are not in the same category) One or both of them had this horrible foreign taste in it, like rosemary or something offensive. Let's just say it was rosemary. How could anyone put rosemary in gumbo or jambalaya. They should have been arrested for that. If I had had handcuffs that night, I would have made a citizen's arrest. Although I don't know if it would have held up in court since I'm not from New Orleans parish anymore.
So that was the horribly disappointing end to our night. But we knew the next day we would be in for a real treat.....
So Sunday brunch. We had dim sum at Royal China with some old friends. Nutella came along, then Fryball 2000 and his fiance, and Gretna Girl. So the Food Pimp started ticking things off the menu, then he passed it around and everyone added a few more things - except for me! By the time the menu got to me, there were so many things that I figured that was enough.
So here is everything that we could recall ordering:(Gretna Girl, please comment and let me know if I missed something here)
shrimp wonton soup,eggrolls, pork wonton soup, asparagus, chicken dumplings, baby bok choy, pork dumplings?, spinach with garlic sauce, chi chow har kow, shrimp stuffed mushrooms, steamed rice in lotus leaf, curry squid, spicy squid, short ribs
So once again, I failed as the Food Ho. I didn't try everything. This was a lot of food, and I tended to focus on the things that I liked the best. So I had a little soup. It was good. Standard good Chinese soup. Not shitty watery chinese soup, but good flavorful soup.
Chi chow har kow. I love those. These were the dumplings that are shaped kind of like tortellini, you know, kinda like a pointy clit or some other female part. Those were delicious. They are just like shrimp and cilantro, I'm not sure what else. But they were always tasty. No, I'm not going to go into any lesbo scenario or anything. I know that those people who google "porn" and land on my blog don't read this far down. Otherwise I might go into some kind of girl on girl kind of digression just to please the international perv scene.
Rice in lotus leaf. What can I say. This was perfect. Just like I remembered it. Perfectly steamed and sticky, with the little goodies inside flavoring the rice.
Curry Squid. Oh yeah. It lived up to my expectations. The squid was so soft and tender. And it had that curry flavor that I remembered it having. It was just right.
Spicy Squid. Okay, this was cooked perfectly. But the sauce was wrong. There were no little slivers of jalapeno, and I don't recall seeing any black beans. Now, it was still really good, and all one needs anyway is the chili paste or whichever condiment from the jars on the table. But it just wasn't the same. I still gobbled it up though.
Short Ribs. These little suckers were amazingly tender. We used to always wonder when we got these whether they would be tough and chewy or kind of edible. They were barely ever tender, but the meaty taste was always so good, that we would get them anyway, and just masticate away. But this time, they were perfect. We only got one order, too.
Egg rolls. I don't think I ate them. They're egg rolls.
Asparagus. I think I tasted a spear or two. They were good. You know, the Angelina Jolie of the food world. A bit overrated. (Not that she isn't a nice caring person)
Spinach. I don't think I tasted it, but it looked good. It was nice and green but cooked.
Baby bok choy. I love this stuff. It was very simply cooked. nice and tender. Yummy, and good for you too.
Shrimp stuffed mushrooms. I didn't taste them. I never was a big fan of these. From what I remember they just tasted like mushroom caps filled with pureed shrimp. Boring.
So that was it. I perfect last supper to a great weekend. So we split the bill and then went for one last drink to Lager's. Then it was time to head down Vets to Kenner and turn in my beloved V8 Nissan Titan.
So we were waiting for our plane for a while. Our gate was right behind the hotdog stand. Every time I got up to go to the bathroom, get water or whatever, there it was, beckoning. I know this sounds sick, but we ate around 1 and then our plane took off around 6. So we were at the airport at about 4. We waited for about an hour and a half. We probably ate the footlong hot dogs with mustard, relish, and jalapenos at around 5. That was four hours later. So don't judge me, I did it for you. For the blog! So anyway, we got in line for the dogs, and the lady said that all she had for the next 20 minutes was footlongs and maybe sausage. So we got footlongs. They are funny though, because they are so skinny. Those all beef hotdogs are short but they have more girth. I'm not really dissing the footlong for having a smaller radius, I just think that it should come with a thinner bun to compensate. It's just that the footlong looked so puny in that big bun, (it was like throwing a hot dog down a hallway) and then when eating it, the bun engulfed the hotdog. So the hotdog tasted great, it was just kind of hidden in all the bread, that's all.
So when we had checked at the airport, there were not really any seats left, except for the exit row aisle 2 middle seats one behind the other. So I booked them. I hated sitting between two strangers, but at least it was with lots of legroom. So this flight went to LA. I forgot that it was the only flight with a reasonable pricetag. It was 4+ hours I think. And there were no meals. We flew on Delta, and they offer this stupid menu of items that passengers can purchase. Yes, they can buy a meal! It's like a fruit and cheese plate, some crossaint turkey sandwich, a chicken parmesan sandwich, a hummus and veggies plate with the hummus being a Todd English recipe (ooh! celebrity chef hummus!).
For free snacks, there were cookies, cheese crackers and peanuts. But just looking at the delta website now, I see that first class gets the added options of Quaker Granola bars and Sun Chips! If I had known that before, maybe I would have upgraded.
So here is the interesting thing about the flight. The guy next to me in the window seat may or may not have been in the wedding. He was Indian, and there were a few of those there who were the groom's friends. And he had friends from LA. I didn't ask this guy of course. I just sat there and wondered. But this guy got the cookies and the crackers the first time we were offered snacks. I got crackers. The guy next to me got the fruit and cheese plate. It actually looked okay, and the portion didn't seem ultratiny like I might have expected. So maybe an hour into the flight, the Indian got up and went to the bathroom. He came back with 2 bags of peanuts. Then about 30 minutes later, they came back around with the drinks and snacks. He got cheese crackers again! I got peanuts, but I put them in my purse for later like an old lady. So this guy had a full meal of snacks! I was very impressed for some reason.
Anyway, we got to LA and it was like 9:15. We had a while until our flight to San Diego. We could have driven home from there and gotten home faster. But we had to eat, so we checked out the choices. Not really anything. So McDonald's again. Yep. We ate there. We got quarter pounder meals. The quarter pounder tasted suspiciously similar to the one I had in San Diego. It was really pretty good. And I got the hot mustard dipping sauce again to dip it in. The fries were good too. Nice and salty. Crunchy. Doo doo doot doo doo ... I'm loving it. And the diet coke. The FP reminded me how Mickey D's always seemed to have good fountain drinks. Whatever the level of CO2 is - it's always just right. Really refreshing. This time was no exception. Bravo, Ronald and Hamburglar and Grimace and the Fry Guys and everyone else there in McDonaldland, Bravo.
So we had to take this bus to the commuter terminal, then we finally got on this teeny plane - sitting across the plane from one another, and we finally touched down in SD a little before midnight. It was a great weekend, but I was happy to be back...home.
So the wedding. It was very nice. Mz Snowbliz looked so cute, so perfect. The best part was that she was wearing her sister's wedding dress. I thought that was very fitting. The wedding was at St. Anne's on Esplanade. Then the reception was at the Omni in the quarter. So we walked there. I was wearing my standard going to a wedding outfit. So I had on these pretty high heels that I have worn about 8 times at the most, but they were about 6 years old. So my right shoe started to feel weird, and I walked slower and slower. Next thing I know, the whole front half of the sole detaches. So, this couple happened to be walking to the reception too, and the guy says, duct tape, use duct tape! So we turned around and headed to the nearest tourist shop. We figured we would either find flip flops or tape. They had a whole wall of flip flops. At first Nutella pulls out these green ones with fleur de lis on the strap. They were pretty funny, but not appropriate for wedding attire. So we found these flip flop wedges. I found the right pair, we paid for them, I put them on and we headed to the reception.
So the reception was on the second floor. As soon as we walked in, we were right at the bar. I don't know if Mz Snowbliz planned it that way, but I wouldn't have been surprised. So being a vodka drinker, Mz Snowbliz offered her drink of choice - Ketel One vodka. So I got a Ketel One and soda of course. Then the food was right there. This was a small room, and there were only a few tables in it. But then there was a side room with more tables and the band and dancefloor. And then there was the huge patio area with another bar. It was very nice.
So here's a rundown of the menu: Natchitoches meat pies, crawfish pies, crabcakes, artichoke balls, crab barquette, brie with praline topping, mini muffs, roast beef, roast ham, roast leg of lamb, pasta with tomato cream sauce, mashed potato bar, and brocatos sesame biscotti. That's all that I can think of. I have to admit, that I was very selfish at this wedding, and I was really only thinking of my needs - alcohol. I drank very steadily, and so, I didn't eat everything there. In fact, I ate very little. I just only went for one go at the buffet. I realize that I have failed my readers as a food ho, after all this is not the vodka ho's blog! I heartily apologize for this, dear readers.
But I guess I will tell you what I ate. I had the meat pies, the crawfish pies, the crabcakes, the artichoke balls, crab barquette and the brie. Not very much of an assortment. I just pretty much went through the first table, then my plate was full. That's why I got a very poor assortment. I should have gone for at least one more plate. Anyway, I ate a bunch of fried stuff and cheese. The barquette was a passed hors d'oevre. So that was okay. It was nothing special, but not bad. Then there were the pies - the meat pie and the crawfish pie. They were both soggy bottomed, which was disappointing. It's kind of hard to keep that kind of thing in a steam table, though. The flavor of both was okay, not as exhilarating as I remember that kind of stuff. The crabcakes, I can't remember, but I don't think I really liked it. I think I had already had too much other fried food. Then the artichoke balls. I honestly think I was blabbing or drinking, and I don't quite remember these, but the Food Pimp said those were the highlight. So I guess the artichoke balls were the winners.
I assure you, next time I go to a wedding with this kind of set up, I will get a little from each table the first round, so that I will be forced to go back for something that I wanted to try. This was a new learning experience for me, since this is my first wedding review. I will get better, I promise.
So someone got a packet of the biscotti, and brought it to our little secluded corner of the patio. So I broke them open and tried one. Really strong sesame flavor. It might have been good, but I think that was definitely a made-for-dipping kind of biscotti.
So then they did the wedding cake stuff. Both cakes looked great.
I can't remember who made them, of course. So the wedding cake was wedding cake flavored. Mz Snowbliz is a traditionalist. It was very refreshing, actually to eat a traditional flavored wedding cake. It was very moist and almondy and vanillaey. The groom's cake had a pirate on it, because her husband had some ancestor who was a pirate! So that cake was chocolate, of course. It was pretty damn good too. Also moist. Nutella ate his cakes in about 30 seconds flat. He is a fast eater... actually, he's a fast drinker too.
So after the reception, Mz Snowbliz told us to head to Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. So we headed to The Court of Two Sisters first, to get a free drink and shoot the shit with Mozzfan69. After a bit, we said bye and headed to Lafitte's. There were a few people there. We doubted that Mz Snowbliz would make it out, but we hung around for a while, then we decided to go somewhere else. I was kinda tired, but they wanted to go to the House of Blues foundation room for one drink. On the way there, though, everyone else got tired. So we went back to the Omni to go our separate ways. As we were walking around we saw Mz Snowbliz and company in the lobby. So Nutella starts freaking out and says, there she is, she's in the Omni, she's there! It's hard to calm him down when he gets like that. So we walked in, said our byes to everyone, then the FP and I were on the streets again. We were deciding between going home and getting something to eat. Since none of us ate too much at the wedding, we decided to eat. The only place we could think of was Deja Vu. We weren't sure what street it was on, but somehow we stumbled upon it, no problem.
So we walked in, and the door seemed to be on another side than we remembered. It was very brightly lit, and it seemed to have been renovated a bit in the past few years. All that made it look worse than I remembered. It was always a dump, but dumps that owners try to halfass make into something other than a dump always turn out worse. It still had the shady characters in there, anyway, and they still had the gumbo and red beans and rice and the jambalaya. That was all we needed anyway. So we ordered one of each. We remembered we used to love that place when we first moved to New Orleans, all those years ago. We hoped the food was still as good.
And it wasn't. The red beans and rice were kinda watered down. Like maybe they didn't have too much left, or it stuck to the pot, so they tried to reconstitute it and put too much water in it. The gumbo and the jambalaya were atrocious after our lunch. It would be like comparing a McDonald's hamburger to kobe beef tartare. (Which means there would be no contest as the two things are not in the same category) One or both of them had this horrible foreign taste in it, like rosemary or something offensive. Let's just say it was rosemary. How could anyone put rosemary in gumbo or jambalaya. They should have been arrested for that. If I had had handcuffs that night, I would have made a citizen's arrest. Although I don't know if it would have held up in court since I'm not from New Orleans parish anymore.
So that was the horribly disappointing end to our night. But we knew the next day we would be in for a real treat.....
So Sunday brunch. We had dim sum at Royal China with some old friends. Nutella came along, then Fryball 2000 and his fiance, and Gretna Girl. So the Food Pimp started ticking things off the menu, then he passed it around and everyone added a few more things - except for me! By the time the menu got to me, there were so many things that I figured that was enough.
So here is everything that we could recall ordering:(Gretna Girl, please comment and let me know if I missed something here)
shrimp wonton soup,eggrolls, pork wonton soup, asparagus, chicken dumplings, baby bok choy, pork dumplings?, spinach with garlic sauce, chi chow har kow, shrimp stuffed mushrooms, steamed rice in lotus leaf, curry squid, spicy squid, short ribs
So once again, I failed as the Food Ho. I didn't try everything. This was a lot of food, and I tended to focus on the things that I liked the best. So I had a little soup. It was good. Standard good Chinese soup. Not shitty watery chinese soup, but good flavorful soup.
Chi chow har kow. I love those. These were the dumplings that are shaped kind of like tortellini, you know, kinda like a pointy clit or some other female part. Those were delicious. They are just like shrimp and cilantro, I'm not sure what else. But they were always tasty. No, I'm not going to go into any lesbo scenario or anything. I know that those people who google "porn" and land on my blog don't read this far down. Otherwise I might go into some kind of girl on girl kind of digression just to please the international perv scene.
Rice in lotus leaf. What can I say. This was perfect. Just like I remembered it. Perfectly steamed and sticky, with the little goodies inside flavoring the rice.
Curry Squid. Oh yeah. It lived up to my expectations. The squid was so soft and tender. And it had that curry flavor that I remembered it having. It was just right.
Spicy Squid. Okay, this was cooked perfectly. But the sauce was wrong. There were no little slivers of jalapeno, and I don't recall seeing any black beans. Now, it was still really good, and all one needs anyway is the chili paste or whichever condiment from the jars on the table. But it just wasn't the same. I still gobbled it up though.
Short Ribs. These little suckers were amazingly tender. We used to always wonder when we got these whether they would be tough and chewy or kind of edible. They were barely ever tender, but the meaty taste was always so good, that we would get them anyway, and just masticate away. But this time, they were perfect. We only got one order, too.
Egg rolls. I don't think I ate them. They're egg rolls.
Asparagus. I think I tasted a spear or two. They were good. You know, the Angelina Jolie of the food world. A bit overrated. (Not that she isn't a nice caring person)
Spinach. I don't think I tasted it, but it looked good. It was nice and green but cooked.
Baby bok choy. I love this stuff. It was very simply cooked. nice and tender. Yummy, and good for you too.
Shrimp stuffed mushrooms. I didn't taste them. I never was a big fan of these. From what I remember they just tasted like mushroom caps filled with pureed shrimp. Boring.
So that was it. I perfect last supper to a great weekend. So we split the bill and then went for one last drink to Lager's. Then it was time to head down Vets to Kenner and turn in my beloved V8 Nissan Titan.
So we were waiting for our plane for a while. Our gate was right behind the hotdog stand. Every time I got up to go to the bathroom, get water or whatever, there it was, beckoning. I know this sounds sick, but we ate around 1 and then our plane took off around 6. So we were at the airport at about 4. We waited for about an hour and a half. We probably ate the footlong hot dogs with mustard, relish, and jalapenos at around 5. That was four hours later. So don't judge me, I did it for you. For the blog! So anyway, we got in line for the dogs, and the lady said that all she had for the next 20 minutes was footlongs and maybe sausage. So we got footlongs. They are funny though, because they are so skinny. Those all beef hotdogs are short but they have more girth. I'm not really dissing the footlong for having a smaller radius, I just think that it should come with a thinner bun to compensate. It's just that the footlong looked so puny in that big bun, (it was like throwing a hot dog down a hallway) and then when eating it, the bun engulfed the hotdog. So the hotdog tasted great, it was just kind of hidden in all the bread, that's all.
So when we had checked at the airport, there were not really any seats left, except for the exit row aisle 2 middle seats one behind the other. So I booked them. I hated sitting between two strangers, but at least it was with lots of legroom. So this flight went to LA. I forgot that it was the only flight with a reasonable pricetag. It was 4+ hours I think. And there were no meals. We flew on Delta, and they offer this stupid menu of items that passengers can purchase. Yes, they can buy a meal! It's like a fruit and cheese plate, some crossaint turkey sandwich, a chicken parmesan sandwich, a hummus and veggies plate with the hummus being a Todd English recipe (ooh! celebrity chef hummus!).
For free snacks, there were cookies, cheese crackers and peanuts. But just looking at the delta website now, I see that first class gets the added options of Quaker Granola bars and Sun Chips! If I had known that before, maybe I would have upgraded.
So here is the interesting thing about the flight. The guy next to me in the window seat may or may not have been in the wedding. He was Indian, and there were a few of those there who were the groom's friends. And he had friends from LA. I didn't ask this guy of course. I just sat there and wondered. But this guy got the cookies and the crackers the first time we were offered snacks. I got crackers. The guy next to me got the fruit and cheese plate. It actually looked okay, and the portion didn't seem ultratiny like I might have expected. So maybe an hour into the flight, the Indian got up and went to the bathroom. He came back with 2 bags of peanuts. Then about 30 minutes later, they came back around with the drinks and snacks. He got cheese crackers again! I got peanuts, but I put them in my purse for later like an old lady. So this guy had a full meal of snacks! I was very impressed for some reason.
Anyway, we got to LA and it was like 9:15. We had a while until our flight to San Diego. We could have driven home from there and gotten home faster. But we had to eat, so we checked out the choices. Not really anything. So McDonald's again. Yep. We ate there. We got quarter pounder meals. The quarter pounder tasted suspiciously similar to the one I had in San Diego. It was really pretty good. And I got the hot mustard dipping sauce again to dip it in. The fries were good too. Nice and salty. Crunchy. Doo doo doot doo doo ... I'm loving it. And the diet coke. The FP reminded me how Mickey D's always seemed to have good fountain drinks. Whatever the level of CO2 is - it's always just right. Really refreshing. This time was no exception. Bravo, Ronald and Hamburglar and Grimace and the Fry Guys and everyone else there in McDonaldland, Bravo.
So we had to take this bus to the commuter terminal, then we finally got on this teeny plane - sitting across the plane from one another, and we finally touched down in SD a little before midnight. It was a great weekend, but I was happy to be back...home.
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